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Legal News Archive For
August, 2010

by a 60-year-old former English teacher, finding instead that she is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her husband.
Mary C. Koontz was also convicted on five additional counts, including attempted first-degree murder and assault. Her lawyers had argued that Koontz suffered from menta...

The first sentence has been handed down in the case of three New Jersey students who were lined up against an elementary school, ordered to kneel, and shot execution-style in the head.
Rodolfo Godinez was given three consecutive life sentences by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin, wh...

Convicted murdered and Manson Family cult member Leslie Van Houten has once again been denied parole by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations's Board of Parole Hearings.
This is the 19th parole hearing for Van Houten, who is incarcerated at the California Institution for W...

A former California police officer is expected to be arraigned this week on numerous charges relating to an alleged private investigation scam.
Not only did Kevin Sianez, 53, bilk clients out of money, he also ripped off other private investigators whom he hired as subcontractors. Additionally, ...

A Lakewood, California man who had successfully lived a double life—and gotten away with murder in the process—was recently arrested by sheriff's deputies.
James Edward Sims, now 66, is accused of the shooting death of Roy Radabaugh, 29, in 1981. The two fought in the parking lot of a Fort ...

An off-duty deputy constable who was working security at a Dallas nightclub could face legal action, termination for having beaten a teenager in the face.
Inabinet Saddler, 17, was rapping at The Mansion, a club in the Old East Dallas neighborhood of the city. He became involved in an argument w...

The mother of a former beauty pageant contestant has filed suit against Los Angeles County for wrongful death and negligence in the death of her daughter, according to court documents.
Latice Sutton filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, against both the county and several sheriff's offic...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected the recommendation of the parole board that an imprisoned former Charles Manson follower should be set free.
Bruce Davis, 67, is serving two life sentences for his roles in the killing of musician Gary Hinman and former stuntman Donald “Sh...

An elderly, disabled woman who was incapacitated and burned by a police officer's stun gun has filed a lawsuit against the city of El Reno, Oklahoma, as well as against several of its police officers.
Lona M. Varner, now 87, and her grandson, Lonnie D. Tinsley, filed the federal lawsuit in Oklah...

According to a coroner and a pathologist, an Illinois correctional facility inmate who died while in custody last November was in extreme pain for days or even weeks before his death.
Adam Montoya, 36, was serving time in the federal prison in Pekin, Illinois, for counterfeiting commercial check...

A former transit police officer with California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is standing trial, accused of having shot and killed an unarmed rider last year.
Johannes Mehserle, 28, says that he shot Oscar Grant III by mistake, having grabbed his pistol instead of his Taser electric stu...

A West Virginia couple are bringing a lawsuit against the husband's employer, Speed Mining, seeking damages for the loss of his leg and genitalia during a coal mine accident at the underground American Eagle Mine.
Jason D. O'Neal, who worked as an electrician for Speed Mining, claims that he exp...

A Chattanooga, Tennessee police officer who arrested and allegedly threatened a man who was speeding en route to the hospital has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
Officer James Daves will remain on leave until the conclusion of an internal affairs study of the i...

A French inmate who is charged with murder and acts of barbarism after stabbing, suffocating and cannibalizing a fellow prisoner has gone on trial in the city of Rouen, France.
Thierry Baudry was found on January 3, 2007 by a prison guard. The 41-year-old had been brutally beaten and mutilated, ...

After 13 years in the legal system, and six separate trials, Curtis Flowers has again been convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 1996 deaths of four furniture-store employees in rural, racially divided Winona, Mississippi.
It took only half an hour for the jury—composed ...

Authorities with the Department of Justice have reached an agreement with Erie County over improvements to be made at the Buffalo, New York Holding Center, where several inmates have committed suicide over the past several years.
The deal stems from a court case, United States v. Erie County, wh...

An elderly convict who was responsible for the decades-old deaths of two couples, one in Ohio and one in Wisconsin, has now said that he also shot to death a young man that he considered a foster son.
Edward W. Edwards, 77, was arrested in July 2009 in connection with the killings of William Lav...

The United States Supreme Court has ruled in the case of a California police officer who was disciplined for sending sexually explicit text messages on his government-issued text pager—and it has ruled in favor of the police department that searched those messages.
Ontario, California police S...

A Cornell University graduate student who was convicted in April of killing his wife—just months after their wedding—has been sentenced to up to life in prison.
Blazej Kot, 25, a doctoral candidate studying information science at the Ivy League school, had pleaded not guilty by reason of ins...

An Italian mobster who is currently serving 17 years in prison says he can provide the evidence to exonerate American student Amanda Knox in the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Luciano Aviello, 41, who is incarcerated because of his connection with the Camorra crime family, claims that...

The alleged stalker of Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson began hearing her voice in his head while watching the Beijing games, he said in a taped interview that was played today in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Robert M. O'Ryan, 34, is facing one count each of felony stalking and felony commercial bur...

Federal and state authorities in the Akron, Ohio area recently divided up $3.2 million in cash and property, which had been seized in 2006 as the result of a little-known form of search warrant known as “delayed-notice” or “sneak and peek.”
A delayed notice search warrant allows law enfo...

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